Problem with using json_encode() to transform XML into array.

xml-to-json-problem.php

<?php
$xml = new \SimpleXMLElement('<xml>
        <node attr="bar">second</node>
</xml>');

$array = json_decode(json_encode($xml), true);
print_r($array);
/*

Array
(
    [node] => second
)

*/
$expected = array(
    '@attributes' => array(
        'attr' => 'bar'
    ),
    'second'
);

FYI, SimpleXML doesn't discard the attributes. They are there, they just don't print out when using methods like echo, var_dump, print_r, etc. Look at the note on this page:

http://php.net/manual/en/simplexmlelement.attributes.php

Note: SimpleXML has made a rule of adding iterative properties to most methods. They cannot be viewed using var_dump() or anything else which can examine objects.

While parsing the SimpleXML object, you can still access the attributes just fine using $element->attributes().

Attributes missing from var_dump() is definitely misleading though.